twitter, originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

When I’m not blogging here, something that I’ve clearly not had time to do the past week, I’m generally Twittering. The thing is I’ve had an awful hard time explaining why Twitter could be useful to people. Oh sure there’s a whole bunch of Web 2.0 bullshit phrases like “branding” and “community building” that I can throw out but when talking with people in the real world (not online) it’s a lost cause.

Today however Twitter actually was a fairly useful service for me. I was invited to a social gathering. The thing was though I had directions I managed to completely missed seeing the giant BC Hydro building when I got off the Skytrain at Edmonds’ station. I wandered around the Burnaby suburbs for about twenty minutes and then started to panic.

I realized that I didn’t have the phone number for my hosts, or anyone else who would be there. Without GPS or Google Maps on my phone I Twittered “Lost on foot in Burnaby, help!” Following this I Twittered, “Seriously if anyone has Google Maps a hand would be nice.”

About two minutes later my phone rang and Mark Hamilton was on the line to give me directions using Google Maps. I don’t know Mark, I’d never talked to him online or offline before that call, but it got me back on track. So thanks Mark, and thanks Twitter.

See now that’s something I can use to explain the power of the Twitter. You know, because nobody but us nerds care about “crowd sourcing”.

Metrotown Mall – 3, originally uploaded by D’Arcy Norman.

From the CBC [cbc]:

The discovery of a six-inch pipe bomb disrupted commuter traffic around the busy Metrotown Mall in Burnaby, B.C., Thursday night….The discovery prompted the closure of the nearby SkyTrain station, as well as part of the underground parking garage at the mall.The shopping centre is expected to be open for business as usual on Friday morning.    

I’ve never had a job that’s been so affected by terrorism as working at Metrotown. Well not terrorism, but juvenile pranks disguised as terrorism. Back during the Telus strike we’d be evacuating the mall on an almost regular basis due to phoned in bomb threats, and now there’s pipe bombs?  Here all I was worried about yesterday was getting fired and not blown up [jks].  Had I only known the peril I was really in I would have called in sick.